The Rebel’s Wrath

The latest from Morin (after A Tale of Life & War) is a well-researched account of life after the Civil War. Sergeant Sherman Jackson survives the Battle of Gettysburg and in 1865 musters out of the Union army to return to his home town of North Scarborough, Maine, where he learns his mother has died and his father will soon follow. As was true for much of the country, the war has taken a toll on the town, and Sherman’s father has been unable to maintain the family store. Sherman had dreamed of continuing his education, but fate and circumstances lead him to rebuild both the general store and the town itself. However, problems arise when violence is visited upon the town by a mysterious perpetrator, and Rebel symbols begin to appear. The tension in North Scarborough rises as Sherman races to discover the truth behind the occurrences. Minor writing flaws—such as the occasional drift in point of view and an overuse of exclamation points—might bother some readers, but a good use of period language and charming descriptions of late-19th-century American life will please American history buffs. (BookLife)